THE EARLY STAGES OF THE SCIENCE OF CERAMICS IN AMERICA1

Abstract

Metallurgical operations and growth of white pottery and tile manufacture stimulated search and analyses of desired clays, by state and national departments, after the Civil War. A chemical relation between composition of pottery bodies and glazes was not surmised in English-speaking countries, until projected by the writer. Finding the idea in operation in current work of Seger, his methods of investigation were applied to American raw materials and ceramic processes during ten years, without followers in any other country but Germany. Native clay resources, white vitreous ware, standardization of production and control were developed independently, and introduced commercially. Growth of the large body of ceramic engineers, obligated by immediate demands for technical results, has prevented true scientific study, of common ceramic phenomena, under known laws of modern physical chemistry. Research is entirely empirical, and hand-books of constants, available to engineers in other fields, are still impossible. To this need of the profession all should now make systematic contribution.